Occupational exposure to cleaners before, during pregnancy may cause asthma in offspring
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Mothers exposed to cleaning products on the job before or around the time of conception and pregnancy were more likely to have offspring with asthma or wheeze, according to a study published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
“Many future mothers are exposed to potent chemicals at work, but potential offspring health effects are hardly investigated,” Cecilie Svanes, MD, PhD, professor at the Centre of International Health at University of Bergen in Norway, said in a university-issued press release. “However, emerging research suggests that parents’ chemical exposures before conception might influence the health in future offspring.”
The researchers used data from two population-based studies involving 3,318 offspring-mother pairs. Mothers (mean age at birth, 27.3 years) participated in the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe (RHINE) study and their offspring (born between 1962 and 1998; 57.3% women) participated in the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain and Australia (RHINESSA) study.
Using occupational data, the researchers determined whether the mothers in the RHINE study had been exposed to 30 specific sensitizers and irritant agents — including cleaning products and detergents as well as low-level and intermediate-level disinfectants — for 6 months or longer.
Overall, 1,307 mothers had been employed for at least 6 months in a job involving exposure to indoor cleaning agents and 2,011 mothers had held at least one job for 6 months or more without occupational exposure to these agents.
Of the offspring with exposure, 150 (11.5%) had mothers who only were exposed to indoor cleaning agents before conception, with the exposure ending an average of 7 years before the offspring was born; 610 (46.7%) had mothers who were exposed before conception, and that exposure continued into pregnancy; 77 (5.9%) had mothers whose exposure began around the time of conception and pregnancy; and 470 (36%) had mothers who were exposed after they gave birth.
Results showed children of mothers whose exposure began before conception and continued into pregnancy had increased likelihood of childhood asthma (OR = 1.56; 95% CI, 1.05-2.31), childhood asthma with nasal allergies (OR = 1.77; 95% CI, 1.13-2.77) and childhood wheeze and/or asthma (OR = 1.71; 95% CI, 1.19-2.44).
An association with increased childhood wheeze and/or asthma occurred with exposure starting around conception and pregnancy (OR = 2.25; 95% CI, 1.03-4.91).
High levels of exposures that started the year of the offspring’s birth or earlier were more strongly associated with offspring asthma (OR = 1.83; 95% CI, 1.18-2.83) than medium exposure levels (OR = 1.32; 95% CI, 0.84-2.08).
Also, the magnitude of the associations between maternal exposures before conception and during pregnancy and childhood asthma were similar for male and female offspring, as well as for offspring whose mothers did not smoke during pregnancy or during their childhoods.
However, exposure after the offspring was born did not appear associated with childhood asthma (OR = 1.13; 95% CI, 0.71-1.8), childhood asthma with nasal allergies (OR = 1.15; 95% CI, 0.67-1.97) or childhood wheeze and/or asthma (OR = 1.08; 95% CI, 0.69-1.67).
“Maternal exposure starting after birth of the offspring showed no clear associations with offspring outcomes, giving additional support to a specific role of preconception exposure rather than confounding,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers noted previous research indicating that environmental and occupational exposures possibly trigger epigenetic changes that might be transmissible to offspring, especially as many cleaning products have lipophilic properties and may accumulate in the mother’s fat tissue and readily diffuse across the placenta.
Also, this exposure could influence the maternal microbiome and, in turn, germline cells and future offspring, according to the researchers. Or, they continued, exposures could contribute to persistent changes in the mother’s microbiome and directly affect gestational biology.
The researchers emphasized that causality cannot be inferred from a single study, but they still speculate that the observations they observed possibly could be causal and stressed the need for focused mechanistic research and replication in human studies.
“Further research is imperative, considering the potential implications for vast numbers of women in childbearing age using cleaning agents and their children,” Svanes said in the release.
For more information:
Mother’s occupational exposure to cleaning products and disinfectants could cause asthma in future children. Available at: www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/931863. Published Oct. 18, 2021. Accessed Oct. 25, 2021.
Perspective
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Richard F. Lockey, MD
This is an epidemiologic study that poses more questions than perhaps it answers. It is an interesting paper, but it is hard to control all the variables. These results need to be confirmed.
There are questions that need to be asked. Which cleaning agents, sensitizers or irritants do we eliminate? Will avoiding them result in other problems, such as an increased number of viral or bacterial infections, which affect everyone? Hand sanitizers are widely recommended to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Is this the good, the bad and the evil?
People want to live in a clean environment. If we eliminate certain cleaning agents, do we also increase the number of cockroaches, silver fish, fleas, dust mites and other critters that cause allergic diseases?
People need to use common sense in whatever they do, including the methods by which they keep their personal and work environments clean. Simplifying the number of cleaning agents and avoiding respiratory and skin contact as much as possible makes sense.
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